Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.
Today we continue on with verses 143 and 142, which read as follows.
hiri nisedho puriso koci lokasmi vijyati yo nidham apabodheti aso badro kasamiva aso yatha badro kasani vittho
It's quite a mouthful.
The meaning of which are, in 143, a human, a person who is held back by shame.
The shame being the aversion to bad deeds.
Inversion towards unwholesomeness.
Disinclined to unwholesomeness.
Kochi lokasmi nvijati.
Whatever person in the world is found to be this way.
Restrained by the understanding that bad deeds are bad.
Wrong.
What is wrong is wrong.
Yonidang apabodhe di.
Now this is an interesting one.
It could mean who awakens from sleep.
Or it could mean who avoids, doesn't awaken ninda, doesn't awaken censure and reproach.
like a horse to the whip.
So it's either a horse, like a thoroughbred horse.
Either a thoroughbred horse avoids the need to use the whip, or else they awaken because of the whip.
I'm not sure which one it is.
Either translation seems to me... I actually prefer the second one.
Awakening from sleep.
like the horse, the whip, right?
Like the horse does when whipped.
So when a horse awakens because they're whipped, just a person awakens from their state of sleep.
But it could also be nindang, which would mean something totally different.
The point is, don't sleep and don't do that which is worthy of censure, one or the other.
144, who is touched by the whip, like the thoroughbred horse that is touched by the whip.
One should have effort.
One should have a sense of urgency.
Bhavata.
become one who is effortful, or be one who is effortful, or cultivate effort and a sense of urgency
with faith, with confidence, ethics and effort.
Sadayasida yena cha viri yena cha Samadhi na, with concentration.
Dhammavini cha yena cha, with a discernment or making an understanding about the Dhamma, deciding based on the Dhamma, making decisions based on the Dhamma.
Sampanavijacarna, being fully endowed with knowledge and conduct.
Patisata, mindful, or being one who is devoted to.
Jahisata, avoiding.
Jahisata dukha midhangana pakanga.
May you avoid this suffering, which is not insignificant.
Sorry if that's complicated.
It's a little bit, but there's many things in there.
So we'll try and go through those.
The first verse is relating to describing a person who is like a horse, like a thoroughbred horse, because they either don't inspire the use of the whip, or when they are whipped, they know what to do.
They react appropriately.
And like such a person you should cultivate, you should be awake, cultivate effort and a sense of urgency and so on.
That's the verse.
The story behind this is actually a short but fairly memorable story of a young lad who was wearing a simple loincloth.
as a beggar, one of these people, very destitute, that all they have is a simple begging bowl and one piece of cloth to their name that's dirty and sullied, and it's all they've got to cover their bodies with.
Someone in a fairly desperate situation.
And Ananda saw him one day and said to him, hey, what do you think?
Wouldn't it be better to become a monk?
Wouldn't becoming a monk be better than this life?
And he said, well, who will ordain me?
He said, come along, I'll ordain you.
So he took him with him and bathed him and taught him meditation and made a monk of him.
Gave him the requisites and so on.
and turned him into a monk and this new monk looked at his old rags and spread it out and looked at it and it was so sullied, so awful that there was not even a little bit of it that he could use for straining water because they would use cloth for straining water but it was so disgusting that there was no part of it.
But he couldn't give it up and so he bundled it up with his old little begging bowl or whatever
and put it up in the crook of a tree and went on.
So eventually he was made a full monk, and he was given all the wonderful accoutrements involved with being a Buddhist monk at the time, which meant he would have great robes and food and lodging and quite a bit of luxury.
Once Buddhism became famous, the monks were subject to a great amount
well, of comfort.
And as a result, he became complacent and fat, apparently, and eventually became discontent, because he didn't really see what the point of all this was.
And it felt kind of, I guess, like being fake, and he thought, well, I should just go back to my old way, and not have to get involved with this
this thing that I don't really understand or believe in, or doing it just to get fat.
I mean, this is really kind of hypocritical of me.
I should go back to how I was.
And so he went back to the tree and found this old rag and pulled it down.
And then he thought about that, and he thought, this is what I've left behind, this life of destitution and poverty, this life of suffering.
I can't do that.
and so he went back and tried again but you know he felt like he wasn't really doing what he should be doing as a monk he wasn't really meditating or behaving properly and so again he felt kind of bad about it and again he went back to the tree and and picked up the robe but the cloth but he couldn't bring himself to do it he just looked at this cloth and said you know this is this is not the way
And three times he went back and forth, and the monks eventually started to see this and asked him, you know, where are you going?
He said, oh, I'm going to see my teacher.
Oh, okay.
And again and again he went back until finally
or eventually, contemplating this, and contemplating in general, because that kind of thing makes you somewhat philosophical, and you think, what really is the point to any of this?
He started to see and to take this cloth, which would be a very good object of meditation, the salid, and it's the...
the symbol of samsara, really, with its filth and its representing the need to seek out food and the need to clothe your body.
Just what it represents, it represents the suffering, the potential for destitution that awaits us at every turn we can fall into.
And eventually doing this he actually was able to apply himself.
He would go back and he would try to meditate and then he wouldn't be able to and he would go back to his cloth and again and again until finally he just let go.
And he became an arahant from, I guess, listening to the Buddha's teaching as well and having this great teacher in this rag-road.
And so eventually he came in our hand and then immediately stopped.
He no longer would return to this tree where he kept this robe.
And the monks asked him, you know, aren't you going to see your teacher?
What happened?
And he said, oh, he said, well, before I, when I was attached to the world, then I needed a teacher.
But now that I've cut off all ties, I don't need a teacher anymore.
And they thought to themselves, well, this is quite the boast.
And so they went to the teacher and they said, this monk goes around saying something that's not true.
And the Buddha said to them, what did he say?
And he said, well, he says he used to walk with a teacher.
Now he has no attachments.
He's cut all the ties.
So he doesn't need a teacher anymore, which is basically saying he's enlightened.
And the Buddha said, well, yes, that's true.
And he called him my son.
When my son was attached to the world, then he needed a teacher.
And so the Buddha didn't reveal what he knew about it being a robe that he went back to.
He said, well, he needed a teacher before, but now he has restrained himself, and he no longer needs someone else to restrain him.
And so then he taught these two verses.
So we have two lessons here.
We have the lesson from the story and we have the lesson from the verses, or a couple of lessons maybe from the verses.
But the story is interesting in how it gives an example of how the world can be your teacher, how inanimate objects can teach you so much, inanimate objects that mean something, things that we ascribe meaning to.
I mean, there's great meaning in the cloth, as I said.
It represents his life.
It represents life.
It represents suffering.
And that's kind of important, our ability to
comprehend the potential for suffering in the world.
The Buddha would often talk about our ability to recognize the suffering in life, recognize the potential that we too will get old, we too will get sick, we too will die, we too could suffer destitution, poverty, hunger, thirst, any number of types of suffering.
And so it really evokes in us this questioning of why and how do I escape and what is the right way to go?
What is the right thing to do?
So we begin to question these things that we took for granted and say, really, is that all that there is?
Is that the best that I can do?
Is this life, is this really the right way to go?
To live my life as though everything was all right?
To live my life as though I would never fall into that?
For this man, it was quite a visceral insight for him to have this object that will constantly remind him of his potential to fall right back into suffering, and a reminder of how harsh life can be.
But then on the other hand, he's like, I can't just take advantage of this being a monk or staying as a monk.
And that's what most of us do, right?
We take advantage of our good fortune, we take advantage of having money and having family and having possessions, when all of these things can disappear in a heartbeat.
In many cases we don't even deserve them, we haven't done anything, or we aren't doing anything to deserve them.
And so these sorts of things were what he would contemplate, and it's a good contemplation for all of us.
This is a very good example, right?
It may not seem like it, we're not all beggars living on the street, but we live in this dilemma of falling asleep, really, and being lulled into a false sense of security.
and the inevitable fall back into suffering and poverty and whatever.
So I think that's a good lesson for us, a good reminder.
It's not a meditation practice, but it certainly supports our meditation, because as a result we come to see that the only way is to change our minds and to be invincible.
to be unmovable, unmoved by the vicissitudes of life, the changes, the potential.
Because we can't stop, we can't control the future.
And if that's the way we choose to go, we'll always be disappointed when things change in ways that we're not comfortable with.
So that's I think the first lesson here.
The second lesson, the lesson from the verse is perhaps more applicable directly to meditation.
The first one is, well the first verse is I guess really the same sort of lesson as the story is the ability to wake up.
Waking up when we remember the suffering of life.
Every time this man went back to the tree he would remember how unpleasant it was being in his situation.
And so this is a sign of a good person.
Buddha said it's like the sign of a thoroughbred horse, is that when they see the whip, they know what to do.
When they feel the whip, at least then they know what to do.
But the same with a human.
When they hear about people suffering, they know what to do.
They know that something needs to be done to avoid that, to avoid the suffering associated with change, with loss, and so on.
And therefore they develop themselves, they cultivate good things, and so on.
It's just like waking from sleep or avoiding the blame that comes from it.
Not sure which.
But the second verse, 144, is really quite, it's probably one of the most pithy of the Dhammapada verses, because it's finally talking about a whole bunch of good qualities.
So what are the qualities, like the qualities of a thoroughbred horse?
What are the qualities of a thoroughbred meditator?
A meditator who is high, who is special, who is exceptional.
They cultivate efforts.
They exert themselves.
They don't just laze around doing nothing.
They get up and they do the walking and the sitting, the mindful.
They wake up their minds, really.
They have the effort of mind to repeatedly attend to the meditation object.
Sangvegi, you know, why?
Because Sangvega, they have a sense of urgency.
They realize that this could come tomorrow.
Change could come at any time, and change is the only constant.
And I'm not ready for that.
I'm not comfortable with that.
I'm not at peace with that.
And so they have a sense of urgency that they're going to suffer if they don't do this.
saddhāya, with confidence.
So they have confidence in what they're doing.
They find a path that is worthy of confidence.
And then they have confidence because it's also possible to doubt that which is worthy of confidence.
You can find the right path and see that it gives you good results and still
end up doubting it, which is a pretty sad state, but it's quite common.
Why?
Because doubt is a habit.
Doubt has nothing to do potentially with what you're doing.
It's our reaction when things get difficult.
It's a defense mechanism in many cases.
It stops us from having to do things that
bring about suffering.
So we should let go of our doubt when we've found that which we know is beneficial.
We should have ethics.
We should avoid bad thoughts or bad deeds, bad speech.
We should work to cultivate ethics so that our mind stays focused, so that our mind is not distracted by all the unethical behaviors that we've engaged in.
viriyena, again with viriya, effort samādhinā, with concentration or focus, keeping our minds focused, not letting our minds get distracted, bringing the mind back again and again to attend on the truth, on reality dhammavini ca yena ca, with
Dhamma vinichaya.
Vinichaya means giving an answer or investigating or understanding maybe.
Vinichaya.
Discrimination may be the better translation.
So the ability to discriminate.
This is good, this is bad, this is...
profitable, unprofitable helpful, unhelpful useful, unuseful ability to see because when you look inside you'll start to see those aspects those behaviors, those habits that we have that are beneficial that are to our benefit and that are helpful to the others as well and then we can see those which are detrimental
So being fully endowed with not only knowledge, so knowing the truth, but also acting accordingly.
is a good definition of Buddhist wisdom.
It's the type of wisdom that involves practice as well.
That is really about who you are, not just what you believe or what you think.
Wisdom is not just thinking or believing something.
Wisdom is knowing it to such an extent that it penetrates into your own behavior, who you are.
It's about how you act and how you behave.
It's not about what you believe or what you think.
Patisata, I think, means being mindful.
Either that or just, yeah, no, I think it means being mindful.
Like patisati, we have in the Satipatthana Sutta.
It's a specific type of mindfulness.
Patisati, pati means specifically.
It's like being just mindful, barely mindful, not judging, not reacting.
That might be what it means.
Chahisata dukamidanganapakam
you will avoid this great mass of suffering.
Suffering which is not just a little bit.
Great suffering you avoid.
Suffering which is not insignificant.
So you could argue that you can't totally be free from suffering.
There is pain and there is unpleasant situations that you have to be faced with.
But there's a huge, a much greater suffering in the mind.
The greatest part of suffering is not in the great wide world out there that is terrible and fearsome and a cause for so much upset.
But the great mass of suffering is actually in this little invisible corner of the universe that is our mind.
This very simple
simple thing, simple reality of our own mind.
And it's just one moment after another, it's where all the suffering goes, the intense amount of stress and suffering and the great torture that we put ourselves through.
It has nothing to do actually with the outside world.
No matter what happens, gain or loss, praise or blame,
No matter what good things or bad things come, no matter what terrible things might happen, no matter how bad things might get, our suffering has really nothing to do with any of that.
The greater part of suffering will always come from our own mind, come from our bad habits and our lack of good qualities.
our inability to penetrate each experience with wisdom and to see it clearly as it is.
As a result, instead, we misjudge, misunderstand, and react inappropriately to all of our experiences and suffer as a result.
Not as a result of the experiences themselves, but as a result of our reactions to them.
so that's the lesson for us cultivating all these things cultivating effort and a sense of urgency and we have to work at it it's a good reminder for us that this isn't something that isn't a chore that we're obliged to do it's an escape it's a way out if you practice in this way a great amount of suffering you will be free from
So that's the Dhammapada for this evening.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Wishing you all good practice.